The startup Antidote has been on the market with healthy organic juices since 2015. Recently, the Munich-based company shortened the brand name of its juices: Antidote became I·do. We asked the founders our 7 questions.
1. Who are you and what do you do? Please briefly introduce yourself and your product!
We're Andi (Andreas Balle), Alex (Alexander Weinig), and Julien (Jockers), three guys from Munich (even the "Zugreistn" are apparently allowed to call themselves that after 10 years), who came together with the idea of bringing exceptionally fresh juices with added value to the public. We're all in our early thirties and come from diverse backgrounds, including food technology, design, and sales. Together with two other original founders, we founded our proud juice shop while still at university and are now the clear market leader in chilled fresh juices in organic specialty stores.
2. But that has been around for a long time!
At least not in the uncompromising organic quality that we've been committed to since day one. When we started in 2014, we were among the very first to offer juices with HPP technology on the Central European market, and we've remained true to our line ever since.
We're currently launching our new "Greens Come True" juice, the first juice made from renewable raw materials in a compostable bottle. True to the motto: think greener, act greener, drink greener—with 95 percent vegetable content and only 1.3 grams of sugar per 100 milliliters.
3. What are the three main ingredients for your recipe for success?
- Our USPs: organic quality, raw food quality & functionality: Especially when processing fresh, raw ingredients, we believe there is no way around organic.
2. Cohesion: Not everyone in our company always shares the same opinion. Our company's history has been a real rollercoaster. Even when there are differences, we believe that continuing to pull together and focus on the task at hand is important for success as a founding team.
3. Perseverance: When we started, the unique advantages of our HPP manufacturing method were still uncharted territory. There was a lot of explaining required, and we often had to justify the price.
“The startup scene is often a bit over-motivated”
4. Let’s get down to business: How is business going?
We are quite satisfied with the current development. Last year alone, we were able to increase sales in our home market, the organic retail trade, by over 50 percent. We now sell well over 100,000 bottles per month. At the end of 2018, we sharpened our brand profile. As far as we can tell, this has been very successful. Due to our expansion into the Benelux countries and numerous new customers in Germany, we fully expect to achieve significant sales growth again this year.
5. What does Munich mean to you?
Munich is a beautiful city with many attractions and a high quality of life. It's certainly not always easy for newcomers to know where things are going. Despite its conservative reputation and relatively small size, we sense a great deal of dynamism and creativity. We hope that in the future, even more young people will see the opportunity (and, above all, the space) to take risks here. In our opinion, the startup scene here is often a bit over-motivated: It's better to get things done first before putting on a tailored pinstripe suit for the next business lunch.
Conclusion: Despite the tax rate, we feel very comfortable in Munich.
6. How will your startup become the next unicorn? Or will we see you soon at Epic Fail Night?
In our opinion, the truth probably lies somewhere in between. We're happy to offer a truly high-quality product with added value and to establish ourselves in a very demanding market. With the new, sustainable packaging, we've now eliminated the last "catch." We could certainly still tell a story or two at an Epic Fail Night.
7. Other juice and smoothie startups are currently garnering plenty of attention with wordplay, hype, and provocation. How do you make sure you get noticed?
For a while, we actually thought this was a sensible approach. Now we're fully focused on the essential features of our products and trying to back them up with facts.
In our Feel Good Book, we've put the potential of functional juice on a scientific footing. Numerous elite and competitive athletes rely on our products—even without paid partnerships. We're convinced that uncompromising quality will prevail. We already have an exciting campaign in the works, but we're only planning to launch it once our distribution has expanded further.
